


Behind the Iron Facade.

by theatergirl06



Series: Quarantine Nightmares [5]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: F/F, aralyn - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23439025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theatergirl06/pseuds/theatergirl06
Summary: Quarantine is the perfect time for Anne Boleyn to get up the courage to do what she's hoped to do for months. She just never expected it to come about through screams and nightmares.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragon, Anne of Cleves/Katherine Howard
Series: Quarantine Nightmares [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682281
Comments: 7
Kudos: 124





	Behind the Iron Facade.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [UnchartedRaider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnchartedRaider/gifts).



Everyone was surprised and simultaneously not surprised at all when they found Katherine Howard and Anna of Cleves sleeping on Katherine’s balcony in one another’s arms on the fifth morning of the stay-at-home order. The event prompted a grumble from Catherine about responsibility, a worried murmur from Jane about catching a cold, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smile from Cathy and  _ lots  _ of squealing from Anne, who took out her phone and promptly begun to snap pictures. 

That is, until Anna stirred in her sleep, grabbed the phone out of Anne’s hand and ran, prompting Anne, and for some reason Katherine, to chase her around the apartment, much to the annoyance of Catherine and Jane, who claimed they were trying to make breakfast, though Anne thought she saw little smiles on both of their faces when they thought she wasn’t looking.

There was an unspoken agreement between Anna and Katherine that neither of them would discuss whatever had happened on the balcony the night before. Anne, as well as all the others, had heard the screams in the night, but she’d also heard footsteps going to respond, and the general rule in their apartment was that one person went to help whoever was having nightmares, and the rest stayed in bed until they were needed. 

Anne had no idea who had screamed, or why, but the two girlfriends seemed to have a renewed closeness this morning, rarely being more than a few feet from the other, and seldom seen not holding hands. The French queen was, of course, happy for her cousin and for her best friend, but she couldn’t help but be a little jealous. Anna and Kat had been brave enough to share their feelings for each other months ago, and Anne was still struggling to admit her own feelings to  _ anyone _ . 

How could she be in love with Catherine of Aragon?

She’d spent a lot of time being scared that her feelings wouldn’t be reciprocated. How could they? Catherine hated her. She’d made that very clear. 

Of course, Anne’s feelings didn’t care about that. 

The second Anne slumped on the couch, Kat seemed to perk up like a puppy. She spun around, and immediately ran over to her cousin. Anne must have looked sadder than she thought, because the second Katherine bounced onto the couch, she wrapped her in a tight hug. 

“What’s wrong?”

Anne laughed. “That obvious, am I?”

“Noooo, I just have cousin powers.”

“Well, tell me what’s wrong already.” Though Katherine was generally very gentle in nature, the two cousins had a rule about not hiding their feelings. Anne had made it after they’d first gotten close because Katherine had been upset so often. Now, her own rule was coming back to bite her in the butt. 

“It’s nothing.”

“Are you upset because you’re hopelessly in love with Catherine?”

Anne turned to her cousin, openmouthed. “Wait, you knew?”

Katherine laughed. “I hate to beak it to you, Annie, but it’s kinda obvious you two are head over heels for one another.”

Anne felt like her head was spinning. “Wait, what?! How?!”

Katherine placed her hands on the second queen’s shoulders. “Annie. Every time the two of you are in the same room, you are making lovey eyes at one another when you think the other one isn’t looking.”

“But...but we fight all the time.”

“Yeah, but you get these ridiculously sad looks on your faces when you finish.”

Anne stared in shock at the pink haired queen. Could her words really be true? Anne wanted them to be, but she still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. 

“I don’t believe you.”

“But you  _ want  _ to.”

“Well...yes, but that really isn’t the point.”

“There’s only one way to find out. Ask her out.”

“What?! No! I can’t do that!”

“Anne Boleyn, look at me. You are brave and funny and talented. You’re an amazing person, and Catherine would be a fool not to date you. Besides, if  _ I  _ can get the courage to ask someone out, then you can, too.”

Anne sighed. There was truth in all that Katherine had said. She was just scared, plain and simple.

“Alright, then, I’ll ask her out tonight.”

And despite her fears, that really was what Anne had planned to do. She’d paced in front of her mirror and practiced in a whisper with her pile of laundry, then her teddy bear, then Kat. 

She never expected the night to go the way it did. 

The hyper second queen had been thrown in bed by Jane and locked inside her room to ensure that she would go to sleep. And as much as she hated to admit it, it was a good strategy, because for the first time since the stay-at-home order, the beheaded queen had actually slept. 

Until she was woken around 2am by screaming.

Acting purely on instinct, Anne raced to her door and tried to open it, which resulted in her ending up on the ground with a bruised leg. Why did Jane have to lock her door? The screams came again, and this time, Anne was able to identify them as Catherine’s. What would the Spanish queen be screaming in the night for? Though she wasn’t the rarest screamer in the household, she was certainly not the most common. She’d screamed rather often when they first arrived, but she’d been significantly quieter in the months since. In face, Anne was pretty sure she hadn’t heard her scream in over a year.

Well, that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to help. She slammed against the door and rattled the knob, but the three queens who could’ve heard her from where she was were Anna, Kat, and Cathy. Anna and Kat were probably in a deep sleep considering how late they’d been out on the balcony the night before. There was a possibility that Cathy was awake, but she’d recently invested in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, and if she was awake, she was definitely wearing them. 

She tried texting Jane, but she got no response, and the message hadn’t even been read. The third queen was either asleep or too busy helping Catherine to check her phone, and when Catherine’s screams came again, Anne quickly deduced that it was the former. 

Suddenly, the “gremlin” got an idea. As fast as she could go while wearing pajamas and slippers, she raced back up the stairs and over to the fire escape outside of her window. She’d used it many times to sneak out during the night, and now she was going to use it to climb onto Catherine’s balcony. She knew for a fact that the first queen always kept the doors open a crack when it rained, as it was raining tonight, for the sake of her precious sunflowers. It was a bad idea in general, but it was very useful for Anne at the moment. 

She climbed out onto the fire escape and began to descent the steps until she was level with Kat’s balcony. She smiled as she saw Kat and Anna inside, sleeping in a very cuddly pile. She debated snapping a picture, but Catherine’s screams coming from the balcony below made her start climbing down the ladder even faster. A couple of rungs down, she paused. When she was sneaking out at night, she climbed straight down until she reached the next set of steps, but Catherine’s balcony was around the corner of the building. To get there, she would have to reach around, grab one of Jane’s flower boxes, and swing. She had no sense of how close the balcony was to the flowers, but it couldn’t be too far. Right? 

Anne sighed. Should she really be putting herself in this sort of danger? Was this worth the risk of falling so far? Of course, there was a chance of falling onto another balcony and not all the way to the ground, but there was also a pretty big chance of breaking her neck or her head. 

Catherine screamed again. It seemed to be getting even worse, and Anne knew she needed to make her decision now. 

When she thought about it, it was easy. She couldn’t leave Catherine in pain like that. If she was going to hurt herself, she was going to hurt herself trying to help someone. She’d rather do that than go back to her room and leave her friend like this. 

Anne took a deep breath. She stood on the tips of her toes, she stretched her arms as far as she could, she grabbed the flowerbox (sorry, Jane!), swung as hard as she could, and let go. 

For a split second, her hands only grasped air. She felt fear course through her veins, and she saw her life flash before her eyes. She saw her childhood at the French court, meeting Henry, getting married, having a child, getting beheaded, coming back, meeting the other queens, getting to know them. She saw Cathy bringing her a cup of coffee at one in the morning, Jane making her tea and talking about their children, Anna driving her as fast as she could when she drunkenly robbed a store, Kat hugging her and teasing her and laughing with her, and Catherine, with so much love in her eyes that Anne didn’t know if it was even real. 

And then, she felt her hands grab the stone edge of Catherine’s balcony. It was the smallest grip she could possibly have, but she breathed a sigh of relief all the same.

Slowly and carefully (and this was probably the only time she’d ever done anything slowly or carefully), Anne pulled herself up onto the balcony. With her energy back, she raced into the door, just as Catherine screamed again. Each scream was more full of pain than the last, and eventually Anne couldn’t take it anymore. She ran over and started shaking Catherine as hard as she could. 

The Spanish queen opened her eyes with a start.

“Anne?”

Anne sighed in relief. At least Catherine recognized her. 

“Yeah. You were screaming.”

“Anne...it’s freezing here. I’m shivering, and I think it’s making my heart worse.” The first queen reached over and grabbed Anne’s shoulders. “Please. I’m in so much pain. You have to help me.”

Anne shivered. Catherine wasn’t in her right mind, and she was scaring her.

“How can I help?”

“Can you...can you bring me my daughter? I haven’t seen her in years. I...I think she might be the only thing that can help me.”

Anne couldn’t stop a few tears from trickling out of her eyes. She wasn’t sure what she could do. She’d done this with Kat and even Cathy one time, but Catherine was different. Just being in the same  _ room  _ with Catherine made her nervous, let alone trying to save her. But she had to try. 

“Catherine, do you see those sunflowers in the corner?”

“No.”

“Well, look again.”

“I see them.”

“Good. Good. Those flowers are in your bedroom. You’re in the 21st century. You’re alive, you’re whole, you have a whole family around you who loved you. Your goddaughter is here. Your lady-in-waiting is here. I’m here. We’re all here, Catherine. You’re not alone, and you’re not dying.”

Anne kept speaking into the divorced queen’s ear. She talked for minutes on end, until Catherine groaned from beneath her.   
“You can stop now. I know where I am.”

Anne laughed with relief. “Thank god. I didn’t know how much longer I could go on.”

“My heart’s still hurting, though.”

“Can I do anything?”

“Just distract me.”

“I can do that. Your balcony is covered in green fuzz from my pajamas. Catherine laughed. 

“Did you climb from the fire escape onto the balcony?”

“Yeah.”

Catherine seemed to freeze in her bed for a second. Then, quicker than Anne would have thought possible, she moved to the window and stared out.

“I can’t see the fire escape from here.”

“Yeah. I, uh, had to swing around on Jane’s flowerbox.”

Catherine stared at Anne in shocked. “Anne! That’s dangerous! You could have died!”

“I know!”

“But you did it anyway?!”

“Yeah, Catherine, I did!”

A pause. Anne looked closer, and was surprised to see tears on Catherine’s face. 

“For me?”

Taken aback, all Anne could do was nod. Catherine took Anne’s hands.

“Thank you.”

As Catherine stared at her, Anne finally found the words she’d wanted to say for so long.

“This may sound crazy, but...will you go out with me?”

Catherine laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed this!


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